HEROIC INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE 


OF GENERAL FRANCIS MARION 


Heriot Clarkson 


ana V times 


THE LIBRARY OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF 
NORTH CAROLINA 
AT CHAPEL HILL 


THE COLLECTION OF 
NORTH CAROLINIANA 
PRESENTED BY 


Edwards & Broughton 


Cp970.33 
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HEROIC INCIDENTS 


IN THE 


ih Ee 


OF 


GENERAL FRANCIS MARION 


ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE BANQUET OF THE SOCIETY OF THE 
CINCINNATI IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA AT 
CHARLOTTE, APRIL 19, 1907 


BY 
HERIOT CLARKSON 


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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 
Raleigh 


Commercial Printing Company, Printers and Binders 


1907 


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ite HEROIC INCIDENTS 


IN THE 


LIFE OF GENERAL FRANCIS MARION 


— 


Mr. Toastmaster: It has been truthfully said: that two- 
thirds of the battles of the Revolution were fought on South- 
ern soil and two-thirds of those were fought. in the Carolinas. 
Next to George Washington, a celebrated writer gives it as 
his opinion, that Francis Marion was the greatest General 
of the Revolution. 

He was of Huguenot descent. Unwilling to bend his knee, 
but firm in the Protestant faith, his ancestor was forced, 
under threat of death, to leave home and native land, Sunny 
France, and for conscience’s sake he sought his fortunes far 
across the great Atlantic in the wilderness of South Carolina. 
The scion of a resolute race, General Marion’s moral firmness, 
strategy and courage, together with his secrecy and success in 
the conduct of his campaigns, have cast around his name and 
fame a halo of romance and glory that few leaders have ever 
attained. Even to this day the deeds of “Marion’s Brigade” 


‘are famous in poetry and prose. President Roosevelt only a 


few years ago appealed to the patriotism of the South and 
bid for its loyalty to him by referring to the fact that one 
of his ancestors was one of ‘‘Marion’s men.” Marion’s hfe 


_ was full of dangers and exploits. At the age of sixteen he 


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was ship-wrecked, and he and his companions for six days 
were without food, except that of a dog that had followed 
them to the boat from the sinking ship. 

Marion’s first military service was in the war with the 
Cherokees and during the war in 1761. Even then his con- 
duct and that of his men almost equaled the heroism of 
Leonidas and his brave band of Spartans at the Pass of 


4 


Thermopyle. When near the Indian village of Etchoe, In- 
dians were observed upon the heights. Under these heights 
lay the line of march, which it was necessary for the army 
to pursue in their advance and the men would thus be ex- 
posed to a murderous fire from the Indians concealed by the 
rocks and trees on each side, all of which rendered this pass 
of Etchoe the most difficult and dangerous defile in the 
Indian country. It was necessary to dislodge them. The 
man of the hour was Marion with a band of thirty. He and 
his men advanced up the hill and entered the defile. The 
Indians fired upon the attacking party and twenty-one were 
killed. Marion was unhurt, he and some of the others being 
saved by the rapid advance of the next detachment. 

The Indians were vanquished and their town of Etchoe 
was reduced to ashes. We see this heroic spirit looking at 
the ruins and soliloquizing. “I saw,’ he says, “everywhere 
around the footsteps of the little Indian children,-where they 
had lately played under the shade of this rustling corn. No 
doubt they had often looked up with joy to their swelling 
shocks, and gladdened when they thought of their abundant 
cakes for the coming winter. When we are gone, thought I, 
they will return, and peeping through the weeds with tearful 
eyes, will mark the ghastly ruin poured over their homes and 
happy fields where they had so often played. ‘Who did this” 
they will ask their mothers. rane white people did it,’ the 
mothers reply, ‘the Christians.’ 

He in that hour, generations ago, taught. again the lesson to 

mankind that the conquering force of the Christian was not 
the sword, but love. 

As soon as the General Committee of Safety of South Caro- 
lina heard of the battle of Lexington, they raised several 
companies, and Captain Marion was placed in command of 
one. In the first act of hostilities in the Southern warfare 
Marion took a leading part—the capture of Fort Johnson 
near Charleston. He also took a leading part in the memora- 
ble defense of Fort Sullivan, June 28, 1776—a battle that 


5 


gave great confidence to the American colonies. The last 
shot, which played havoe with the British Commodore’s ship, 
was fired by Marion. It was at this battle that the brave 
Jasper picked up the flag shot away and placed it on the 
rampart under a galling fire. 

We next see Marion at the siege of Savannah under Count 

D’Estaing. Under the pretext of negotiating, Prevost got 
D’Estaing to give him twenty-four hours in which to deter- 
mine whether he »would surrender the city. In the meantime 
he received reinforcements. Marion was furious at the delay. 
“My God,” he exclaimed, “who ever heard of anything like 
this before? First allow an enemy to entrench and then 
fight him! See the destruction brought upon the British at 
Bunker Hill, and yet our troops there were only militia, raw, 
half-armed clod-hoppers, and not a mortar, nor carronade, 
nor even a swivel—but only their ducking guns. What then 
are we to expect from our regulars—completely armed with 
a choice train of artillery, and covered by a breast-work ¢ 
For my own part, when I look upon my brave fellows around 
- me, it wrings me to the heart to think how near most of them 
are to their bloody graves.” Marion did his best in the siege, 
but the Americans failed and the brave Jasper was slain. 
/ We next see him in Charleston. Marion was averse to 
every species of intemperance. He was invited to a dinner 
party. The host insisted on his guests drinking. Marion 
refused and determined not to submit to this. The door was 
locked, but he jumped from the second-story window of the 
house and this broke his ankle. He had to go to his planta- 
tion after the injury, and thus escaped capture when Charles- 
ton fell. 

Next we see him and a small command _ joining General 
Gates and his splendid army. The poor appearance of Mar- 
ion and his men was the subject of ridicule by the regular 
soldiers. Pride comes before a fall. Gates and his men 
were defeated disgracefully at Camden, and Marion became 
the hero of the South. 


6 


After the defeat of Gates the Carolinas seemed almost lost 
to the cause; but in this hour of darkness to the American 
cause, there was formed the now famous “Marion Brigade.” 
William Cullen Bryant starts his poem on Marion’s Brigade 
in these words: « 

“Our band is few, but true and tried, 
Our leader frank and bold, 
The British soldier trembles, 
When Marion’s name is told.’’ 

Marion took charge of this brigade on August 10, 1780, 
when he was forty-eight years old. He wore a leather cap, 
part of the uniform of the second regiment, with a silver 
erescent in front, inscribed with the words, “Liberty or 
Death.” 

All are acquainted with a familiar incident at Snow Island 
in the swamps, his rendezvous. He there offered a British 
captive sweet potatoes and water—his only diet—-and when 
the British prisoner was exchanged he returned to England 
and refused to fight against such a patriot. 

The fiery Tarleton, who could not catch him, dubbed him 
the “Swamp Fox.” On one occasion Marion was almost sur- 
rounded by British dragoons in an open field, and his only 
hope of escape was to have his horse leap a high fence and a 
four-foot ditch on the opposite side. His splendid horse 
cleared the fence and ditch, and Marion, bidding the British 
‘“good-morning,”’ made good his escape. For his gallant 
conduct at Eutaw Springs, Congress thanked him. 

The bravest soldier is the most generous to his foe. In 
the Senate after the war, Marion refused to vote for the “Con- 
fiseation Act”’ 
pubhe wants. 

At another time a bill was introduced in the Senate reliey- 
ing Marion and others from legal responsibility for using 
private property during the war. Marion had his name ex- 
cepted and said: “If I have given any occasion for complaint, 
IT am ready to answer in person or property. If I have 
wronged any man, I am willing to make restitution.” 


taking the property of the Tories to meet the 


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Many other heroic incidents could be given if time would 
permit, but let me close with three beautiful tributes. Keat- 
ing Simons, who was Marion’s Brigade-Ma)jor, says: 

“In the year 1782, when the British troops were preparing 
- to evacuate Charleston, they had a covering party on James 
Island to protect their wood-cutters, and another on Lam- 
prere’s point to protect their getting water for their shipping. 
Colonel Kosciusko, a Polander (the distinguished patriot), 
solicited General Greene to afford him an opportunity of 
distinguishing himself; and as the covering party to the 
wood-eutters was the only one which now presented itself, the 
General gave him a command to attack them, which he did, 
and was defeated with the loss of a great many men, and 
among the slain was the gallant Wilmot. About the same 
time that General Greene gave Kosciusko this command he 
wrote General Marion that he understood the watering party 
at Lamprere’s point was so situated as to afford him an oppor- 
tunity of attacking it with success. General Marion replied 
that he had not overlooked the situation of the British at that 
spot, but he viewed the war in Carolina as over; and as the 
enemy were preparing to go away he had sent a party to pro- 
tect them from being annoyed by his own men; that he com- 
manded his fellow-citizens who had already shed blood 
enough in the cause of freedom, and that he would not spill 
another drop of it, now when it was unnecessary—no, not 
for the highest honors that could be conferred upon him.” 

General Greene pays Marion this tribute: 

“When I consider how much you have done and suffered 
and under what disadvantage you have maintained your 
ground, I am at loss which to admire most, your courage or 
fortitude, or your address and management. Certain it is, 
no man has a better claim to the public thanks than you have. 
History affords no instance wherein an officer has kept pos- 
session of a country under so many disadvantages as you have. 
Surrounded on every side with a superior force, hunted from 
every quarter with veteran troops, you have found means to 


8 


elude their attempts and to keep alive the expiring hopes of 
an oppressed militia, when all snecor seemed to be cut off. 
To fight the enemy bravely with the prospect of victory is _ 
nothing, but to fight with intrepidity under the constant im- — 
pression of a defeat, and to inspire irregular troops to do it, — 
is a talent peculiar to yourself. Nothing will give me greater 
pleasure than to do justice to your merit, and I shall miss no 
opportunity of declaring to Congress, to the Commander-in- 
Chief of the American Army, and to the world, the great 

sense I have of your merit and services.” ; 

Colonel Henry Lee (father of the Confederate chieftain), 
who served with Marion, says of him: 

“Small in stature, hard in visage, healthy, abstemious and _ 
taciturn, enthusiastically wedded to the cause of liberty, he 
deeply deplored the condition of his beloved country. The 
common weal was his sole object; nothing selfish, nothing 
mercenary soiled his ermine character. Fertile in stratagem, 
he struck unperceived; and, retiring to those hidden retreats 
selected by himself in the morasses of the Pee Dee and Black 
Rivers, he placed his corps not only out of the reach of his 
foe, but often out of the discovery of his friends. <A rigid 
disciplinarian, he reduced to practice the justice of his heart; 
and during the difficult course of warfare through which he 
passed, calumny, itself never charged him with violating the 
rights of persons, property or humanity. Never avoiding dan- 
ger, he never rashly sought it; and acting for all around him 
as he did for himself, he risked the lives of his troops only 
when it was necessary. Neither elated with prosperity, nor, 
depressed by adversity, he preserved an equanimity which 
won the admiration of friends and exacted the respect of his 
enemies.” | . 

Can higher tribute be paid to any man? Such was the 
hero who with McDowell, Morgan, Davidson, Lee, Sumter, 
Pickens and others did so much to redeem the South. We 
here take leave of these patriots’ examples and commend 
them to the youth of all ages. 


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